Latest updates: sources suggest idea of windfall tax on energy firms ‘back on the table’ as cost of living crisis continues to bite
- Attorney general approves scrapping of NI protocol – reports
- UK GDP shrinks in March as consumers cut spending
- Tory MP blames food poverty on lack of cooking skills
Ministers do not expect to reach an agreement with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol, Sky’s Beth Rigby reports. She is quoting “senior government figures” close to the talks between Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, and Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice-president in charge of Brexit. Truss and Šefčovič have been talking this morning.
Victoria Atkins, the prisons minister, was the government’s representative on the airwaves this morning. She told Sky News that she thought her Tory MP colleague Lee Anderson was wrong when he told the Commons yesterday that there was no great need for food banks in Britain and that the real problem was people not being able to cook properly. She said:
This is not the view of me or anyone else in government. We want to give not just immediate help but longer-term support as well.
